Sales to first-time home buyers remain depressed, a new Washington Post article notes, directing some blame at student loans. Many young people are graduating with higher debts than earlier generations while stricter lending standards have made it harder to get a mortgage.

Chief economist Lindsey Piegza of Sterne Agee has drawn a similar conclusion. About seven in 10 graduates leave school with debt and almost 40 million have sizable loans to pay off, she wrote in a recent report.

Total U.S. student-loan debt now sits at $1.1 trillion, making it the largest kind of consumer debt after mortgages, according to figures issued Tuesday by the New York Federal Reserve. Total student debt climbed $114 billion in 2013 and it has doubled in the past eight years.

What’s more, The New York Fed found that 11.5% of student loans are 90 days past due or in default.

The consequences not only include weaker home sales, but less spending on all kinds of consumer goods and services. Slack demand, in turn, gives businesses less reason to hire and create more jobs. And if graduates are unable to find a well-paying job, the burden of paying back the debt grows even more onerous.

Unlike other forms of debt, student loans are almost impossible to reduce or eliminate through bankruptcy unless an individual can prove extreme hardship. Many people take years, sometimes even decades, to pay all the debt off. It can even hurt their ability to save for retirement.

Still, lenders are legally well protected and they have little reason to deny an applicant a loan. Nor do colleges face any pressure to make sure their graduates can find a good job after they leave.

Are you having a hard time paying back your student loans? Let us know in the comments.